20 



4 



five million pounds of lead annually. The 

 mines are the property of the United States, 

 and are leased for a term of years to indivi- 

 duals at a low rate. This system of retain- 

 ing possession of mines, salt springs, &c. on 

 public lands, by the general government, 

 seems to have been copied from some Eu- 

 ropean model, and is in complete opposition 

 to the general spirit of our institutions. At 

 the present moment we observe with plea- 

 sure that it is proposed by the government 

 to sell these lead mines ; in which case, 

 new sources of wealth, as yet neither fully 

 ascertained, nor even known to the commu- 

 nity as far as they are ascertained, will be 

 presented to the activity and industry of 

 our citizens. Hitherto they have contented 

 themselves with merely extracting the loose 

 masses found in the soil, and have seldom 

 gone deeper than fifteen or twenty feet. 

 When improved modes of mining shall have 

 been adopted, and the proper machinery 

 introduced, there is no doubt but that the 

 subjacent stratum of metalliferous limestone 

 will be penetrated, and the annual quantity 

 much increased. Many valuable details are 

 recorded respecting the different processes 



